


Kamandha

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [1]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Arguments, Brother-Sister Relationships, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Oneshot, Set before Bharat’s visit, missing moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 15:31:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15710073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Sita and Lakshman have words in the early days of their exile.kamandha (Sanskrit): blinded by love





	Kamandha

Rama appreciates his younger brother’s service, but he is adamant that he pulls his fair share of labor during their venture in the forest. He soothes Lakshman’s pride by telling him that he can take on the most important task of guarding Sita while Rama goes about gathering firewood and hunting.  

Sita finds she doesn’t mind the time together. She knows her _devarji_ well, of course, but while in Ayodhya there had always been a barrier between them, a line behind which he stood, treating her as much like a revered mother as an elder sister-in-law.

Forest life is much more straightforward than palatial life, however, and it takes only a few days before Lakshman grows comfortable around her. He is still deferential and conscientious, but at least he drops that embarrassingly obsequious manner he often adopts with her. They have only each other for the next fourteen years, and she would rather they pass it as friends.

He is a good companion, filling what would otherwise be stilted silence with an anthology of stories and anecdotes. Lakshman can _talk,_  she is amused to find out. She has known this since her swayamwar and he nearly got his head cut off by Parashurama for his impertinent tongue, but it seems that several years of married life have not taught him how to control it.

More often than not, his words turn to Ayodhya, and the perceived treachery that must be transpiring there. Rama does not like to hear of it, so Sita often finds herself the audience of Lakshman’s tirades. Worry needles at her heart, although she tries to counsel rather than scold, caution rather than castigate.

Only once does she lash out at him. He is in the middle of one of his usual rants about Bharat’s motives, when the conversation takes a different turn. “There was always _something_ lurking in him since childhood, though he concealed it well. I never fully trusted him, although _Bhaiyya_ was too pure-hearted to see it. If you ask me, though, it’s not just Kaikeyi Ma that brought it to the surface. There have been times when I wondered if there was someone else close to him urging him on. Perhaps it was Mandavi, and she harbored ambitions of being queen--”

The pot of water Sita had been hefting crashes to the ground, and Lakshman glances up sharply to see his _bhabi_ striding towards him. He is taller and broader than her, with a bow in his hands and years of fighting behind him, while she is unarmed, yet he takes a step back as she nears him.

“You will _never_ ,” she snaps, “speak a word against my sister and your _bhayo_ again. Your own Urmila’s sister? Your _saali_ __? What has Mandavi ever been to you besides good and kind, to make you suspect her of treachery? Speak what you will about your own family, but do not think to insult mine.”

She slams the pot back onto the stove, kindling the fire until its fervor matches her own. Lakshman is shamed into utter silence for once, returning to his post on the porch. _How dare he how dare he how dare he_ thunders through her mind.

His resentment of Kaikeyi Ma, Bharat, even Dasharath to an extent, she can understand. But just because Mandavi was away with Bharat in Kekaya when the oath was pronounced, Lakshman thinks to pin accusations of perfidy on her? She understands the righteous indignation of a younger brother, but she was Mandavi’s protector long before she ever heard of Ayodhya.

Sita is protective but not vindictive, and by the time Rama returns to the cottage, they have made up, tacitly agreeing not to mention their petty quarrel. She wonders, though, as she sees Lakshman bow deeply at Rama’s feet before moving to take the bundle of firewood from his hands. What might Lakshman be capable of doing in Rama’s name, who might he suspect of wronging his beloved older brother? In his worst moments he has already spoken of sending an arrow into his father’s heart, between Bharat’s eyes. She trembles at the magnitude of such devotion, and yet she finds herself glad that it has accompanied them to the forest.


End file.
